It looked like 2017 May FRM Part 1 questions (numericals) were designed to test candidates' TI BA skills more than core fundamentals. I mean all this time you prepare to master the concepts and memorize every single formula just to witness that you are rendered helpless under time pressure because they have dramatically scaled up the calculations steps per question. Is GARP running out of creative ways to make questions smarter without resorting to increasing calculation steps ? One already feels like a cave man having to use a calculator in the present era, on top of that one has to be agile and accurate enough to meet GARP's ever increasing button pushing requirement. (I mean seriously , was it really necessary to test 2-step binomial valuation two times ?) Multiple times I felt, 2/3 questions are merged into 1 question. Just knowing the process is not enough anymore, you gotta embrace the mindless button pushing ritual too : the latter being a significant attribute of present day's Financial Risk Manager . Don't give me that whatever it is, it's same for everyone. No. Skilled candidates are forced to do dirty guessing work along with the Unskilled ones, thanks to your brutal intentions behind the question design. What do you think, what kinda of risk managers would come out of this ? I just hope they do not continue this madness and restore the elegance and dignity of the FRM Exam by designing questions in a TI BA agnostic fashion which are original and really test a candidate's worth.
Couldn't agree more with your point! After reading some question you see how to solve it but have to skip it because it'd take too long to do the calculations. The American put valuation with 2 steps binomial tree for example, but I also remember questions about the unexpected loss of a portfolio of two bonds, EWMA, GARCH...
I think they've got to change their calculator policy at some point (allow calculators where you can type the whole formula and then execute, e.g. TI 89), or (even better) move to another format (administer test on PCs with no internet connection, but with Excel) to test the concept rather than the ability to use the error prone TI BA+...
Anyway, let's wait and see the results. Good luck everyone.
Thanks!